The invention relates to a sound pick-up having a pressure-difference microphone, arranged in a housing, for converting acoustic signals which are produced in the acoustic near field of the sound pick-up into an electric signal.
The invention also relates to a remote control unit, in particular for wireless control of equipment by acoustic input of command signals having a pressure-difference microphone arranged in the housing of the remote control unit.
A known field of application of such sound pick-ups relates, for example, to voice communication in a noisy environment. On the basis of the pressure-difference principle applied in this case, sound produced in the acoustic far field of the sound pick-up can be faded out or at least reduced so far that words spoken in the acoustic near field of the sound pick-up can be transmitted virtually undistorted for the purpose of intelligibility.
Because of these properties, such sound pick-ups are also suitable for remote control devices with voice input of control commands, called voice commands below, into an appropriate remote control unit. However, it has been shown that breathing noises and the manner of pronunciation of specific command words can lead to misinterpretation of a voice commandxe2x80x94such as,xe2x80x9cpxe2x80x9d, in the case of a command word with a consonant which is pronounced hard.
It is therefore the object of the invention to improve intelligibility in the case of a sound pick-up and to improve the recognition of command words in the case of a remote control device with such a sound pick-up.
The invention is based on the idea of arranging a pressure-difference microphone in a housing, and of providing in one of the housing walls a single opening directed onto the front side of the microphone, for feeding voice commands which can be produced in the acoustic near field of the housing, the aim being to arrange the microphone in the housing in such a way that, and/or to form the air volume which is to surround the microphone, in such a way that the microphone can be irradiated with sound through the opening, using the pressure-difference principle.
This configuration of the sound pick-up has the advantage, moreover, that a wind shield or the like can additionally be arranged in a simple way between the opening and the microphone.